Scarcely (adv): barely; hardly; not quite; insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant

From A Jury Of Her Peers: “Mrs. Hale scarcely finished her reply, for they had gone up a little hill and could see the Wright place now, and seeing it did not make her feel like talking.

Seeing what the definition is, I can see that she barely finished what she had to say because she was closing in on the Wright place, approaching her destination to where she knew it was a lonesome place.